My experience making a BLOSSOMS video

The struggle to find relevance in math is not specific to students who are not fond of mathematics or those who are not good at it. Creating a mindset that labels math an irrelevant topic to real-world problems can be what keeps students away from STEM majors in universities. In his article in OR/MS Today [1], Professor Richard Larson explained how exposing high school students to OR/MS concepts and applications in real-world contexts can get them excited about mathematics. This motivated Dr. Larson to launch an initiative at MIT called BLOSSOMS (Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies) (http://blossoms.mit.edu). The BLOSSOMS Web site is a free repository of interactive video lessons that teachers can use in mathematics and science classes in high schools around the globe. You can find more information about the goals of BLOSSOMS and examples of these video lessons in [2] and [3].